506 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



There were, however, differences in points of infection, the length of 

 the season and in the virulence of the disease, and the rapidity of its 

 spread that made it necessary to include the entire tree in examination 

 for blight, and to modify somewhat the methods of control. In order to 

 determine the agencies responsible for this sort of infection, which was 

 not common in the East, where the original experience was had, in order 

 to justify and emphasi?e the method of treatment and at the same time 

 account for every type and point of infection and make it a matter of 

 general knowledge among the growers, it was thought wise to spend some 

 time in a study of the agencies responsible for blight distribution. 



The great mass of evidence gathered during a year's work was directly 

 incriminating to the insects found in the pear orchards. To eliminate 

 them would mean to at once halt the spread of the disease between 

 communities, between orchards, and between individual trees. This is 

 beyond the wildest dreams of the wildest — or wisest — entomologists. 

 But it may be of value to know what evil the chief offenders are prone 

 to, and to keep temptation out of their way, as far as is possible in a 

 commercial way. 



It would require some years of study to give a complete catalogue of 

 the insects responsible for blight distribution, and the value of sucli a 

 thing would not justify it. 



I will take up the principal types and discuss them as classes, rather 

 than specifically. 



It is true, of coiirse, that the winter stages — the cases of so-called 

 holdover blight — are in a community sense the key to the situation, not 

 because they are theuLselves a source of much infection, but because 

 they are the foci of infection, the contaminated sources from which the 

 first germs are taken. The complete eradication of winter blight has 

 been attempted, has been accomplished in individual. cases, but never 

 universally. So, then, with blight present in or near our orchard, we 

 are at the beginning of the growing season face to face with that most 

 destructive phase of the disease called summer infection, which begins 

 with the rise of the sap and continues as long as there is vegetative 

 growth in the trees. This is the season that insects are most active and 

 to them belongs the responsibility for this enormous damage. 



This summer blight enters through the late bloom, the lateral and 

 terminal buds of growing shoots, and the fruit. The greatest loss has 

 been that which occurred through l)lighted sprouts at the base of the 

 trees, or well down on the trunks. This growth is desirable as a protec- 

 tion to the boles of the trees, but in this case it must be eliminated, for 

 when blighted at the base it is usually necessary to condemn the trees 

 outright, though various methods of removing the blight from the trunks, 

 and even the roots, have been resorted to, and often with excellent 

 results. 



The Honey Bee as a Carrier of Pear Blight. 



The honey bee has been called a great rascal in the distribution of pear 

 blight germs. He is a rascal during the season in which he can do injury. 

 He and his many wild cousins carry much of the disease among blossoms. 

 It is argued that bees do not find blight exudate palatable. This is only 



